Title is from the soundtrack for the movie Queen of the Damned, which had a fairly large number of artists and bands that worked on it. Disturbed sang it, though.

Forsaken

This wasn't so bad thus far. The patients from ward A were generally very cooperative when it came to taking their medicine. She had even met a few past acquaintances, like Hiroko, a girl of sixteen she had treated in the emergency room just over a year ago. She had tried to commit suicide; ripping both her wrists open first with a knife, then her teeth. She had barely made it.

It was Hinata who had noticed the bruises on her arms, then her thighs. Noticed, and had called the police. The poor girl had been raped by her brother repeatedly over the past two years, and couldn't take it anymore. Her brother had gone to prison, and she had ended up here because of her violence towards men. The dark haired girl had smiled at her, remembering the nurse who had been there for her, green eyes flashing.

"Good to see you, Hinata, good to see you. Working here now? I'm glad, you understand better than the others. You know that all men are the same; they're all out to get you, to hurt you. You know that all they want is for you to hurt, because your pain makes them happy. You see that. In a way, I'm glad I'm here. He's gone and can't get me, and I can keep the others away from me and not get yelled at. Did you know that it's a rule just for me? No evil man is allowed near me, only girls. I can't ever be released, and I'm okay with that. Let me have my pills, and then I'll go to lunch. Thank you Hinata, I'll see you soon." They girl took her pills and walked off to the cafeteria, Hinata gazing after her. At least she wasn't rocking on a bench or bed anymore, muttering to herself. She was actually talking, much improved from the last time she saw her. Her physical wounds had healed cleanly, but there were still thick, ropey scars on her lower arms from her ordeals.

Hinata continued outside on her rounds, which for now just entailed going from patient to patient with basic medication and vitamins out in the courtyard, and carefully recording their numbers and names on her log sheets. The names and numbers were neatly stitched in black thread under their letter patch, and they each had a medical bracelet in green on their right wrists to boot, so it was an easy enough task. After her break she would get to work with another nurse to do the B's.

He could practically smell the prey-enemies moving above him, just like he could almost taste their blood and flesh. Oh how he hungered, how he needed to feast on them, make them suffer, make them pay for imprisoning him here under the ground. Soon, a prey-enemy would come in to try and take from him, to force their vile chemicals on him. They would poison the air first, and then try to take and take and take. Not so easy, though. He had a surprise for it when it came.

Soon enough, he could smell the gas, feel the heaviness it gave his limbs. He snarled and gnashed his teeth as the chain pulled taut, forcing him against the wall. He growled as the prey-enemies that came in forced his limbs to be belted to a lock above his head; his legs individually secured to the wall as well. He hissed and tried to bite when they put a mask over his face to stop him from biting before securing his neck to the wall as well. Then they left, leaving one female prey-enemy to take from him.

Not so easy, they may have him in a strait jacket, they may have his hands fastened, but he had had a long time to work on that evil lock, when the prey-enemy approached close enough, he gave a sudden jerk and snapped the mechanism inside, bringing his hands down and fastening them around her neck, squeezing, squeezing. Squeezing as the others rushed back in. squeezing as her pretty blue eyes bulged out. Squeezing as her face turned blue-violet, contrasting prettily with her auburn hair. Squeezing until her tongue protruded from her mouth, almost black and so very wet. Squeezing until the pulse no longer beat in her throat, and hissing in rage as they finally jerked the dead prey-enemy from him. He hadn't even gotten to feed, just like all the other times. Not even a taste. He raged and raged, roaring and screaming as the prey-enemies cheated him of his prize once again.

Hinata started as nurses and doctors darted past her, making a mad dash for the elevators. She snagged one as he darted past.

"H-hey, what's going on?" she asked softly, mindful of the surrounding patients from ward A.

"Patient Three-thirteen broke his hand restraints and strangled a nurse. It doesn't sound like she's gonna make it." Hinata's eyes widened in shock; how could anyone be so strong as to break their restraints?

"You stay here, Hinata, and keep doing your rounds, otherwise some of the other patients might freak out. To about thirty percent of them, routine is everything, and I don't need thirty percent of our inmates rioting on top of Three-thirteen's murderous antics," Asuma told her as he headed down. They needed all the muscle they could get with that monster.

"Don't worry, I'll help you out." She turned around to see Sai smiling at her. They walked around, finishing off the patients from ward A and moving on to the B's, which were in special groupings adhering to a strict schedule.

"Sorry, Hinata, but Sanya was called down to assist with the incident, so I'll be showing you B instead. I hope you understand."

"Of course Sai, how could I not understand? I just hope everyone's okay." Sai's eyes dimmed a bit.

"Me too, but whenever there is a response like that, it means that the shit hit the fan, let alone whenever HE's involved." Hinata's eyes widened.

"Sorry to break it to you, but I think that he must've killed someone again."

Danzo sighed in resignation as he read the report. That bastard had gotten violent and had killed yet again, despite the drugs and the restraints. Cases like him made him curse the fact that lobotomies were now illegal in this country, which was ridiculous. In hopeless cases like him they would be particularly useful and would guarantee the safety of his staff. Or perhaps not, considering that they would have to physically sedate him and transport him to the medical ward. Too many opportunities for him to escape. That must never happen, ever, or everything, all of his work, would come crashing down around him.

Danzo turned from his desk to his office window to peer out of it, surveying his courtyard full of his patients from ward A that were roaming around, chasing imaginary butterflies and playing with bubbles. At least they were easy enough to manage, unlike that monstrosity under the ground. He hoped fervently that he stayed there. Unlike most people, he knew that there were monsters out there, real monsters, and that thing in the basement was one of them.

Danzo sighed as he prepared a report of his own to send to the local law enforcement agencies. It was going to be a long night.

Hinata was sitting across from Sai in the employee cafeteria. No bones about it, everything was strictly vegan, not even the milk and yogurt were made with dairy products, no, soy milk was the closest thing you could get. It was weird, she thought as she sipped it experimentally. Not gross or unpleasant, just weird, and it didn't really take the place of real milk, at least in her opinion. Still, not bad. The vegetable soup was actually pretty good, and the fruit was decent quality. They had a beastly salad bar, with most of the trimmings, with non-dairy cheese and non-dairy dressings, nuts, different types of greens, raw vegetables, even tofu eggs and tofu ham. The tofu was sort of icky to her, but she did enjoy throwing some mandarin oranges on her salad with a nice berry vinaigrette. The fresh spinach was very good, as was the kale, and the sprouts were still crispy and juicy.

The cafeteria was very generic, much like the cafeteria for the patients. The floor was basic white linoleum, the walls were white, and it was very, very clean. The only difference was the fact that the employees had separate small round tables and was mostly buffet style, whereas the other one had long rectangular tables and the food was distributed by employees to the inmates. Other than that, they were practically interchangeable.

"So anyway, the B's are usually not so bad, as long as they're with their guides. There's a few here and there that are uncooperative, but not bad. Your list of patients will have the troublemakers highlighted. A week or so on the A's and B's, then you'll eventually do C's and D's. Here you go." He passed over a folder to her, plain blue, with a neat label on it, reading: Ward B, Groups 9 – 16. She took it and slid it to the right of her tray. Sai spooned up a mouthful of soup while she nibbled on her salad. Personally, she thought that the job was going well so far. Even with three-thirteen's actions. How on Earth had he been able to break the restraints like that? He must have some serious strength to do something like that!

Okay, so there was ONE patient she wasn't looking forward to working with, but that wouldn't be for a while yet anyway. Not too bad yet. Sai was a big help.

"You know, you handle the patients really well, you've got this ability to exude a calm presence. That's really good; I think you may be able to handle the C's and D's in time. Not now of course, but in the future."

"Thanks!" Hinata smiled happily, and they continued to eat.

Dark. So dark. Whispers in the dark. They left him in the dark. Not good to be in the dark, because he was in the dark too, whispering, whispering. Always whispering. Telling him things, showing him things. Things in the dark. And they put him inside of him with their needles. Oh, they all said that it was only vitamins, but he knew better. They put him inside, put the dark inside. It itched and burned, writhed under his skin, felt like ants crawling under his skin. Had to get them out, had to, had to, had to! Had to get them out before they reached his brain! No telling what they would do when they got there, what they would make him do. Had to get them out.

His hands were restrained, but his head wasn't. Good, he could still get them out. He turned his head and began to chew. So good, so sweet. Red, liquid candy. Get them out before they got too far. Yes, get them out. Pain means nothing, have to get them out. So good, so sweet. Alarms sounded, but they meant nothing more than to hurry. Nothing more but to hurry. White ghosts burst in, trying to get him to stop, no, no, NO! Can't stop, or they'll get in his head! Can't stop, can't, can't, can't! He looked up at his reflection in the ghost's mirror-eyes, and he screamed. He was too late.